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RESULT <)F COUNCIL 



IIKI.Ii IN TIIK 



LECTURE lloiUI 



rcooTrv ct 1 



ESSEX-STREET CHURCH, BOSTON, 



Ja.v. 81, Feb. 8, 15, axd 21, 18G6. 



BOSTON: 

NICHOLS AND NO YES. 

1866. 






RESULT OF COUNCIL 



II hi. I > IN TlIK 



LECTURE ROOM 



ESSEX-STREET CHURCH, BOSTON, 



Jan. 31, Feb. 8, 15, and 21, 1866. 



BOSTON: 
NICHOLS AND NOYES. 

18GG. 



■ B?AS 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866 T by 

NICHOLS AND NOYES, 

In the Clerk's Office of tbe District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



CAMBRIDGE: 
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WIL80N AND BONS. 



LETTBB MISSIVE. 



Boston, Jan. 19, 1866. 
To the Churc/t, /Ju*tvn, vit/i t/ttir Pastor, 

Rev. the Union Church, Essex Street, 

Anton, semis greeting: — 

Dear Christian Brethren, — You are aware that there 
seems to be a growing desire and expectation among us with 
regard to an increase of attention to the subject of personal sal- 
vation by Christ, and that Christians are consulting with one 
another as to the best ways of promoting it. 

In former years, our Churches, with their Pastors, were 
accustomed to confer and act together with regard to the in- 
terests of religion in Boston. A united action on this subject 
serves to give strength to such measures as may be deemed 
desirable. 

And whereas it is consonant with our Congregational usage 
that some one Church should take the first step when the 
Churches are invited to council together, and it having been 
suggested by some who are interested in this movement, that 
the Church whose Pastor has had the longest term of pastoral 
service in one Church could, with common assent, properly 
issue the Letter Missive for this purpose : — 

We do, therefore, as a sister Church, affectionately invite 
you to be present, by your Pastor and three Delegates, at an 
Ecclesiastical Council, in the Lecture-room of this Church, on 
Wednesday Afternoon, January the Thirty-first, in- 
stant, at a quarter past three o'clock, to devise and recommend 
such practical measures as the Council may judge best adapted 
to extend a knowledge of salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ 
among the population of this city, and to impress the claims of 
the Gospel upon their consciences and hearts. 

With cordial affection, your brethren in Christ, 
In behalf of the Union Church, 

N. ADAMS, Pastor. 
Daniel W. Job, Clerk (pro tern.), [3] 



THE COUNCIL WILL CONSIST OF 

THE ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES 
OF BOSTON, viz.: — 



churches. 
Old South. . 



Park Street 
Union. . . , 
Phillips . . 
Berkeley Street 
Salem . . . 
Mariners' . . 
Central . . . 
Maverick . . 
Mount Vernon 
Shawmut . . 
Springfield Street 
E Street . . 



Chambers Street 



pastors. 
; Rev. G. W. Blagden, D.D., and 
! Rev. J. M. Manning. 

Rev. A. L. Stone, D.D * 

Rev. N. Adams, D.D. 

Rev. E. K. Alden. 

Rev. H. M. Dexter, D.D. 

Rev. S. P. Fay, Acting Pastor. 



Rev. J. E. Todd. 
Rev. J. S. Bingham. 
Rev. E. N. Kirk, D.D. 
Rev. E. B. Webb, D.D. 

Rev. A. R. Baker, Acting Pastor. 
; Rev. G. VL Blagden, D.D., and 
Rev. J. M. Manning. 



* Rev. Dr. Stone having resigned the pastoral charge of the Park-street 
Church, subject to the action of a Council, he is hereby invited as an hon- 
orary member, in the event of bis dismission: 



[*] 



RESULT. 



Pursuant to letters missive of which the fore- 
going was the form, the Congregational Churches 
of Boston met in Council, by their Pastors and 
specified number of Delegates, at the appointed 
time and place, for the purpose of considering 
the state of religion, and devising and recom- 
mending practical measures for the furtherance 
of the Gospel in this city ; and having held several 
sessions of a deeply devotional as well as a delibe- 
rative character, and having listened to important 
reports of committees appointed to set forth the 
defects in our religious condition, their causes 
and their remedies, — and having heard these 
subjects freely remarked upon and discussed, — 
and having humbly and earnestly sought the 
Divine guidance, — came to the following 

RESULT. 

For the feelings among Christians which led 
to the call of this Council, — for our assembling, 

[6] 



b RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

— for the spiritual interest and power of our 
sessions, increasing to their close, — and for the 
influence of these things upon the Churches, 
manifest and already extensive, — we are pro- 
foundly grateful to the Head of the Church. 

We feel that in these things some of the true 
purposes of this Council have been already ac- 
complished. 

What further measures for the promotion of 
a deeper and more extensive religious interest 
among us may be expedient, is an important but 
difficult question. Different measures are suited 
to different times, and to Churches and neighbor- 
hoods of different character and condition ; and 
therefore we are compelled to pass by many 
measures which are not of general applicability, 
and do not meet with universal approval. 

We call the attention of the Churches to the 
imperative duty of entering upon new and more 
earnest courses of action. We are beset on the 
one side by rationalism and infidelity, on the 
other side by superstition, on every side by 
worldliness, ungodliness and vice. Multitudes 
around us, including many united to us by the 
strongest ties, are without any interest in the 






UBULT OF COUNCIL. 7 

Saviour, and arc, therefore, in the way to ever- 
lasting ruin. At the same fun* 4 , wordliness has 
crept into our Churches, the love of many has 
grown cold, and a wicked and fatal indifference 
* and inactivity has paralyzed their energies. 

We do, therefore, by their love of Cirist, by 
their compassion for the perishing, by their hope 
of salvation, affectionately and solemnly adjure 
our Churches to employ such prompt, new and 
decided measures for the advance of the king- 
dom of Christ in and around them, as the Spirit 
of Christ which is in each shall suggest ; and we 
do affectionately and solemnly adjure each of 
our Church members to enter at once upon a 
deeper and more thorough humiliation and re- 
pentance before God, a more entire separation 
of heart and life from the world, and a more 
faithful and earnest personal activity in the work 
of saving souls. 

We feel that our first duty is, to point out 
affectionately but very plainly, some of the causes 
of this coldness, indifference and inactivity which 
we all so deeply deplore. 

We all acknowledge the general truth, that if 
there is ever to be a revival in a Church, it must 



8 RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

commence in the hearts of its members. TVe can- 
not hope for God's blessing upon the meetings 
and the prayers of nominal Christians who are 
daily sinning against their Maker, and whose 
daily lives are devoted to the service of mammon ; 
such prayers are empty forms, without reverence, 
or love, or faith. 

The sins of individual Christians are the cause 
of this condition of the Churches of Christ. 
While we rejoice to know and to acknowledge 
the unaffected piety, the simple faith and holy 
lives of so many Christians, we are also aware 
that the most earnest and the most devoted are 
those who are most alarmed at the general con- 
dition of the Churches. 

There are many of the nominal members of 
the Churches of Christ whose daily lives are at 
war with the plain commands of the Gospel. 
Do they love God supremely? Are their affec- 
tions set upon heavenly things? They do not 
endeavor to renounce the sinful customs and 
vanities of this world ; but they allow the solemn 
realities of religion to become secondary to the 
duties and pleasures of the passing hour. Par- 
ents neglect family worship and faithful religious 
instruction in their families ; they disregard the 



MBULT OP OOUKGIL. 9 

eternal welfare and the salvation of the immortal 
souls of their Children, and make their duties to 
God subordinate to the friendships, the claims, the 
pleasures and the frivolities of social life. Trifling 
causes, which do not keep the lovers of pleasure 
from theatres and balls and parties, are sufficient 
to prevent nominal Christians from attending 
the services of God's sanctuary and the weekly 
meetings for prayer. 

Prominent among the evils with regard to 
which there can be no trifling and no compromise, 
are two. We refer to the neglect of daily secret 
prayer and of the daily study of God's Word. 

We desire to express our settled conviction, 
that daily secret prayer (not a formal lip service, 
but a real and consecrated communion with our 
Heavenly Father,) is as essential to a true Chris- 
tian life as vital air is to the life of the body ; 
and that a daily study of the Bible, with prayer 
for God's blessing upon the study of His own 
Word, is indispensable to growth in grace, and, 
indeed, to any really religious life. We have 
reason to believe that both of these vital points 
are daily neglected, to the endangering of many 
souls. 

l* 



10 RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

In connection with these duties we wish to 
bring forward into prominent view one great 
cause of the want of progress in the Church of 
Christ on earth. This is, that with but com- 
paratively few exceptions, our members are not 
working for the cause of Christ and His king- 
dom. 

What different results we might expect if 
every Christian were earnestly at work for the 
saving of souls ! We believe that this is a plain 
Christian duty which cannot be neglected or 
evaded, that it is essential to a true Christian life, 
and that the only truly happy Christians are 
always working Christians. 



KECOMMENDATIONS. 

RENEWAL OF COVENANT. 

In view of the painful declension in the 
Churches, and of the solemn responsibilities of 
this hour, when all around us we can hear of the 
coming power and glory of God, we do solemnly 
and earnestly recommend to each one of you, 
our Christian brethren and sisters, that you study 



RESULT OP COUNCIL. 11 

carefully, and with earned prayer, your covenant 
with God, Your conscience will instruct you. 
ifl to your fidelity to the vows which you once 
took upon yourself in the presence of God and of 
His holy angels. If you feel that you have 
broken your covenant and neglected your duties, 
you must return, as a penitent sinner, to the one 
strait and narrow way. You must humble your- 
self before your Maker, and repent, and seek 
forgiveness and mercy through the atoning sacri- 
fice of Christ, until you receive that free pardon 
which He gives to all who in sincerity and hu- 
mility come to Him ; and then you will be enabled 
by a sincere and heartfelt reconsecration of 
yourself to Christ, to become a living member 
of the Church to which you now are an occasion 
of grief and reproach. We know that this re- 
consecration is possible to every individual Chris- 
tian, not as an empty form, nor by any public 
profession only, but after sincere self-humiliation, 
and a new pardon, and a glad reconciliation with 
God. 

In order that this individual duty of humiliation 
and repentance, and of a new consecration to the 
service and glory of God may, in the most solemn 



12 RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

manner, be brought home to the heart and con- 
science of every Christian, we recommend that 
all our Churches should simultaneously, on the 
third Sabbath of March, solemnly renew their 
covenant with God and with each other, and that 
this day should be devoted by every Christian 
to conscientious and searching self-examination, 
and to sincere humiliation before God. In order 
that this reconsecration may be general and 
effectual, we suggest that early notice should be 
given so far as possible, to every member of the 
Churches, and that one or more appropriate 
sermons be preached in each Church on or before 
the appointed day. 

UNION COMMUNION. 

We recommend also that in the evening of this 
day there should be united communion services 
in the Park-street Church, designed solely for 
the members of the Churches represented in this 
Council, in which they may join in token of their 
brotherly love, and union in Christ, as well as to 
seek the Divine blessing upon their solemn vows 
of reconsecration to the service and glory of 
God. 



UDBUL1 OF COUNCIL. 13 



ADDRESSES TO CIIUUCII MEMBERS. 

In order that the dangers and temptations to 

which Christians are exposed, the causes of cold- 
ness in our Churches, and the means through 
which we hope for a renewal of the work of the 
Holy Spirit among us, may be plainly set before 
the members of our Churches, we recommend 
that addresses by the Pastors be prepared and 
printed for distribution in every Church, upon the 
following subjects : 

1. The Duty of a More Strict Observance of the 
Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. Blagden. 

2. The Power and Office of the Holy Spirit, by 
Rev. Dr. Adams. 

3. The Power of Prayer, by Rev. Dr. Kirk. 

4. The Christian's Reconsecration, by Rev. Mr. Al- 

DEN. 

5. The TVorldliness of Nominal Christians, by Rev. 
Dr. Webb. 

6. The Spread of the Gospel in the City among the 
Poor and those who habitually neglect the Services of 
the Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. Dexter. 

7. The Christian's Duty to work for the Saving of 
Souls, by Rev. Mr. Bingham. 

8. Revivals of Religion, by Rev. Mr. Todd. 



14 RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

9. The Duty of Daily Secret Prayer and Daily 
Study of the Bible, by Rev. Mr. Manning. 

10. The Duty of Christians to unite with some 
Church, and the Duty of Church Members to unite 
with the Church where they statedly worship, by Rev. 
Mr. Fay. 

11. The Divine Sovereignty in its Relation to Hu- 
man Salvation, by Rev. Mr. Baker. 

OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. 

We are convinced that the services of the 
Lord's Day ought to be considered supreme above 
all other times and means of grace. The mem- 
bers of our Churches should keep God's Sabbaths 
holy, and reverence His sanctuary by attending 
on both the services usually held. We know 
that these great duties are too much neglected. 

PREACHING. 

We believe that it is desirable that the Pastors 
should select subjects for their sermons such as 
the present hour seems to demand : and we 
recommend great plainness and distinctness in. 
preaching upon those grand and solemn doctrines 
of the Bible : Man's total alienation from God ; 
the Divine justice in the eternal punishment of 



/ 



RSSULT OF corNCiL. 15 

the wicked; the new birth; salvation through 
faith in Christ 

Those primal truths of God's Word, and Christ's 
stern and awful warnings against a nominal and 
merely formal worship of God should be preached 
afresh without any compromises with pride, 
heresy or worldliness ; and God's ministers should 
be sustained and supported by Christians in this 
high duty. 

UNION AMONG CHURCHES. 

We recommend that every means should be 
taken to bring about a more fraternal union and 
practical sympathy and co-operation between all 
our Churches in the city. A more familiar 
intercourse and more frequent associations will 
bring about these desirable results. Mutual re- 
gard and respect and acquaintance should be 
cultivated, in every manner, and as some of the 
means to insure these objects, we recommend: 
combined or union prayer meetings ; informal 
delegations of members from one Church to 
another at the usual social meetings ; united pub- 
lic services as occasion may offer ; occasional 
unions in the communion services ; and more 
frequent exchanges among the Pastors. 



16 RESULT OP COUNCIL. 



PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

We need a higher faith in the prevailing power 
of prayer. If the five thousand members of our 
Churches were awakened to the solemn respon- 
sibilities of the present moment, and were all 
united in fervent daily prayers for God's bless- 
ing, we should not require councils, or need to 
suggest reforms. 

We therefore earnestly adjure all who love the 
Lord Jesus Christ that they do daily, with deep 
earnestness and trusting faith, strive earnestly 
in prayer for the manifest presence and power 
of the Holy Spirit in all our Churches. 

EXTRA MEETINGS. 

We are disposed to believe that much of the 
force and efficiency of the Sabbath services is 
lost because the hearers during the week are 
given up to the world, and the solemn impres- 
sions of the Sabbath are effaced. We therefore 
recommend that -each Church should increase the 
number of its social prayer meetings : and that 
for the present these meetings should usually be 
devoted to prayers for the Holy Spirit and for 



VBULT OF COUNCIL. 17 

the conversion of the impenitent. Wc suggest 

also that inoreased efforts should ho made l)y 

Christians to induce the unconverted to attend 
these meetings. 

GENERAL VISITATION. 

We recommend that in each Church compe- 
tent and experienced Christians shall be ap- 
pointed to visit the members, for the purpose of 
conversing with them on the subject of personal 
religion, for their mutual profit. In this way 
the hearts of true Christians may be encouraged 
and quickened, and the unfaithful may be won 
back to duty and their first love. It would be 
well for the visitors to go forth two and two, as 
the Lord appointed, a few members of the 
Church being assigned to each pair. Simultane- 
ous neighborhood prayer meetings, or a special 
Church meeting might profitably close the work. 

SPECIAL AND PROTRACTED MEETINGS. 

The subject of special meetings in the day- 
time during the week, and of protracted meet- 
ings, seems to depend so much upon the spiritual 
state, and the situation in other respects, of our 



18 RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

several Churches, that we think it best to make 
this suggestion only, — that whenever any Church 
shall appoint such meetings, it is the duty of all 
sister Churches, so far as it may be convenient, 
to co-operate sincerely, and assist them. 

SABBATH SCHOOLS. 

"We recommend a more general and faithful 
attendance upon the Sabbath Schools, especially 
on the part of adults. Every member of our 
congregations, and especially every Christian, 
for whom it is possible, should be connected with 
some Sabbath School, as a teacher or a scholar. 
The Sabbath School ought to be employed as a 
means of drawing children and others into the 
services of the sanctuary, and not as an inde- 
pendent and superior instrumentality of grace. 
We suggest also, that the Sabbath School should 
be made less a means of merely interesting and 
amusing the children, and more a means of in- 
structing them and bringing them to Christ; 
and that every Sabbath School teacher is bound 
to use the most diligent and faithful efforts to 
bring the children to a personal interest in the 
Saviour. 



RESULT OP COUNCIL. 19 



CITY MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

We recommend a more earnest attention on 
the part of every Church to the wants and 
claims of the City Missionary Society. The 
number of missionaries needs to be increased ; 
and the means of enabling them to minister tem- 
poral relief, as it opens a direct road for the 
Gospel to the hearts of the suffering, should be 
liberally supplied. Every Church ought to have 
missionaries of its own employed under the gen- 
eral direction of this Society. 

LAY PREACHERS. 

If any Church can procure from among its 
own members, or elsewhere, suitable men to 
preach Christ in mission chapels, halls, or ves- 
tries, as lay preachers under the supervision and 
with the co-operation of the Pastor, we earnestly 
recommend the employment of such assistance. 

NEW CHURCHES, ETC. 

In view of the dense and neglected population 
in the north part of the city, it would be obvi- 
ously unfaithful to the Master, should our 



20 RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

Churches cease to maintain vigorously our faith 
and polity in that part of the city ; while the 
rapid growth of the city, in our judgment, re- 
quires the immediate erection of a new meeting- 
house and the consequent organization of a new 
Church of our order at the extreme South End, 
and also at East Boston. 

DISTRICTING THE CITY. 

We believe that the apportionment of the city 
into districts, and the assignment of a district to 
each Church for its religious care, is already in 
progress. We recommend each church to accept 
the field of labor which shall be offered it, and 
enter with alacrity and vigor upon the work. 
The religious condition of every family should 
be known ; and not a child unconnected with 
any Sabbath School should be left unsought ; 
not a stranger in the city should be left to its 
temptations and snares, uncaught by a Christian 
hand ; and not an individual should be permitted 
to pass through and out of life, within the 
bounds of the district, without having distinctly 
and repeatedly presented to him, the knowledge 
and offers of Christ's salvation. 



RESULT OF COTOCIL, 21 

Such a work will call lor much self-denying 
Ubor on the part of the whole Church ; and we 
do, in the most solemn manner, and l>v the most 
sacred considerations, urge the Churches to come 
up heartily to the work. Let every Christian 
feel that there is something for him, or her, to 
do. Let some work be assigned to each, accord- 
ing to his or her several ability. Let every 
Christian remember, that not only among the 
poor and lost, but at home and by the way, in 
business circles and among his friends, he is 
under the strongest obligations to preach Christ, 
with modesty, wisdom^ meekness and love, not 
only by his works but with his lips. 

ENCOURAGEMENT TO LABOR. 

We call the attention of the Churches to the 
fact that at the present time we have special en- 
couragement to labor. There seems to be a 
readiness in the minds of men to listen to the 
Gospel. There seems to be a general expectation 
of an unusual outpouring of the Spirit. All 
around us showers of grace are falling. In all 
of our Churches there is an element of faithful- 
ness and prayer; in some of them there is an 



22 RESULT OF COUNCIL. 

unusually tender and solemn state of feeling. 
In our own sessions and their influence we 
believe that we have seen indications that the 
Lord is with us, and going before us. 

Let us, then, Pastors and Churches, awake to 
the responsibilities and privileges of the hour. 
The time is short ; the reward is great ; and lo ! 
Christ is with us alway. 



^bbrcsscs io (Cburrb ftlcmbcrs 

Are in preparation, as follow?, viz.: — 

1. The Duty of a more Strict Observance of the 
Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. Blagdkh. 

2. The Power and Office of the Holy Spirit, by 
Rev. Dr. Adams. 

3. The Power of Prayer, by Eev. Dr. Kirk. 

4. The Christian's Reconsecration, by Rev. Mr. 
Alden. 

5. The Worldliness of Nominal Christians, bv Rev. 
Dr. Webb. 

6. The Spread of the Gospel in the City among the 
Poor and those who habitually neglect the Services of 
the Sabbath, by Rev. Dr. Dexter. 

7. The Christian's Duty to work for the Saving of 
Souls, by Rev. Mr. Bingham. 

8. Revivals of Religion, by Rev. Mr. Todd. 

9. The Duty of Daily Secret Prayer and Daily 
Study of the Bible, by Rev. Mr. Manning. 

10. The Duty of Christians to unite with some 
Church, and the Duty of Church Members to unite 
with the Church where they statedly worship, by Rev. 
Mr. Fay. 

11. The Divine Sovereignty in its Relation to Hu- 
man Salvation, bv Rev. Mr. Baker. 



In accordance with the recommendation of the Coun- 
cil, the Addresses named above will be printed without 
delay, for the purpose suggested. The first of the 
series, by Rev. Mr. Alden, will be issued in a few 
da vs. 



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